No Way Out (2000)
No Way Out (2000) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on February 27, 2000, at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut. It was the first event produced under the No Way Out name, although it was preceded in 1998 by an event named No Way Out of Texas, which was an In Your House event. The main event was a Hell in a Cell match, a match where the ring and ringside area was surrounded by a 20-foot-high roofed steel cell between WWF Champion Triple H and Cactus Jack; Triple H won the match to retain his championship. The featured bout on the undercard was a standard wrestling match, also known as a singles match, for a championship match at WrestleMania 2000 in which The Big Show defeated The Rock. Storylines The event featured eleven professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWF script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned story lines that took place before, during and after the event. The main feud going into No Way Out was between Triple H and Cactus Jack fighting over the WWF Championship inside a Hell in a Cell match. The feud started after Triple H defeated his father-in-law Mr. McMahon at Armageddon in a No Holds Barred match and also winning the WWF title from Big Show on Raw Is War only a few weeks later. These events would start the McMahon-Helmsley Era with his wife Stephanie McMahon. Mankind would rebel against this new era and would receive attacks from D-X and Triple H. Mick Foley would drop the Mankind character to Cactus Jack. At the Royal Rumble, Triple H and Cactus Jack would fight in a Street Fight match for the WWF Championship, which was won by Triple H. The next night on Raw Is War, Triple H would grant Cactus another chance at the title at No Way Out and that the match can be any kind he wants. Cactus would later decide that the match would be a Hell in a Cell. Triple H said that it was deal only if he would put his career on the line, which he would agree to. Over the next few weeks, Triple H would start predicting that he would end the fifteen-year career of Mick Foley. Another feud heading into No Way Out was between The Rock and Big Show over who should get the chance to face for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 2000. The feud began at the Royal Rumble in the Royal Rumble match, The Rock and Big Show were the last two competitors in the match both trying to throw each other over the rope. Both wrestlers fell out of the ring hitting the floor, with The Rock hitting the floor first, but the officials thought Big Show hit the ground first, making The Rock the winner of the Royal Rumble. The next night on Raw Is War, Big Show complained that it was no fair that nobody saw what happened so he got evidence and sent it to Triple H, who would later make a match between The Rock and Big Show at No Way Out where the winner would get a WWF Championship title shot at WrestleMania. Aftermath After The Rock lost against The Big Show, they continued their feud through the next month onto the March 13 edition of Raw Is War in a match where if The Rock lost, he must leave the company. Shane McMahon was made special guest referee, and during the match, Shane hit The Rock with a steel chair and tried to get The Big Show to cover him. Vince McMahon made his return by running into the ring, hitting his son, and allowing The Rock to perform a Rock Bottom on the Big Show and cover him for the pin and win back his WWF Championship title shot against Triple H at WrestleMania. On the March 16 edition of SmackDown, Shane McMahon came out and announced that the match would be a Triple Threat match (a standard match with three participants) also including the Big Show, to which Vince then came out and announced that he would be in The Rock's corner. Following this match taking place on a Raw Is War preceding WrestleMania 2000, Linda McMahon appeared and announced that the match occurring at WrestleMania would instead be a Fatal Four Way Elimination (a match with four participants where three must sequentially be eliminated via pinfall or submission) with Mick Foley whom Triple H had retired, filling the last spot. At WrestleMania 2000, Triple H defeated the three other men and thus retained his WWF Title. Both Vince and Shane McMahon betrayed the wrestlers they were backing and joined Triple H and Stephanie McMahon's faction, while Linda remained with Foley. The Rock received a rematch at Backlash 2000 and defeated Triple H, thanks to the help of Linda McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The two would also have an Iron Man Match (a match lasting sixty minutes where the victor is the performer with the most decisions at the end of the time limit) with Shawn Michaels as Special Guest Referee, which saw Triple H regain the title after Michaels disqualified The Rock due to interference from The Undertaker giving Triple H the deciding decision. They would finally end their feud at King of the Ring 2000 in a Six-Man Tag Team Match in which the participant on the Rock's team who gained the victory would be named champion. The Rock would have both Kane and The Undertaker (who had returned from a groin injury) on his team, while Triple H had Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon. The Rock would win his fifth world championship after pinning Vince. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * No Way Out Category:No Way Out Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2000 Pay-Per-View Events